Twenty-five years have passed since Cantona launched himself into the crowd at Selhurst Park. It remains his best moment
![Eric Cantona and the hooligan: the impact of the kung-fu kick 25 years on](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4fb108fdc2b2e59d71e624aeb17113a2a7691dfa/1_0_3023_1814/master/3023.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=129559dfa0c01bb3aedd838c067e053b)
By Rob Smyth for Nessun Dorma
Eric Cantona scored 82 goals for Manchester United. He won four league titles and two Doubles, and was a catalyst for the most successful period in the club’s history. None of that will keep him warmest in his dotage. “My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan.”
Cantona always refers to Matthew Simmons, with a delightful, absent-minded contempt, as “the hooligan”. It’s a neat way of dehumanising the gobby fan he dealt with when he tried to kick
racism out of football on 25 January 1995. Twenty-five years later, the footage and images of his kung-fu kick retain an exhilarating power. It was the definitive example of what Alex Ferguson called Cantona’s “defiant charisma”. His defiance that night defined his career, and also his life.